Manufacturer and Inventor James Oliver

By Robert N. Pripps.
Published on June 4, 2019
article image
courtesy of Robert N. Pripps.
James Oliver

James Oliver was the youngest of the nine children of Scottish sheep farmers George and Elizabeth (Irving) Oliver. Times were hard in early 19th century Scotland, owing partly to an outbreak of cholera that killed most of the family’s sheep. The frugal Oliver family managed to hang on despite desperate conditions, but George and Mary’s oldest son, John, left for America in 1830. The next two oldest siblings, Andrew and Jane, also found opportunities limited and left for America. Meanwhile, James, then 7 years old, was learning to read and write in a local Presbyterian church.

John Oliver found work in Geneva, New York. Andrew and Jane joined him there and soon all were mailing home glowing accounts of a land where forests were actually in the way and people ate meat three times a week, at a time when the family in Scotland was barely eking out an existence. George Oliver was not the adventuresome type and resisted the idea of emigrating, but Mary took charge and announced that the family was going to New York. The year was 1834; Jamie, as he was called, was 11.

Respecting the burdens of others

Likely reflecting his Scottish heritage, Oliver was a man of strong convictions on many subjects in farming and business, and he was not afraid to express them. One of these was his high opinion of the relative value of the Clydesdale horse breed in comparison to the Percheron breed. He loved the Clydes and even drove one of the big shaggy-legs on a buggy. He declared that all a Clyde needed to be a racehorse was patience and training. He claimed that his buggy Clyde was really quite a fast trotter, “if I would let him out.”
At the turn of the 20th century, manufacturing trusts changed the face of farm equipment manufacture. Oliver Chilled Plow Works was courted by several organizations proposing amalgamation. When approached on such a prospect, Oliver would have none of it. “I do not care for your money,” he is reported to have said to at least one potential investor. “Neither I nor my family wish to get out of business. We are not looking for ease or rest or luxury. Your talk of more money and less responsibility means nothing to me. I want my children to know the stress and strain of work, and never to forget the burdens of life, in order that they may respect the burdens of others.”
James Oliver died in 1908 at age 84. Joseph D. Oliver took over control of the business. Blessed with a rare gift for business, he directed successful expansion efforts. Oliver Chilled Plow Works thrived, eventually becoming Oliver Farm Equipment Co., a full-line agricultural equipment producer shipping products all over the world. FC
After 36 years in the aircraft industry, Bob Pripps returned to his first love and began writing about tractors. He has authored some 30 books on the subject and several magazine articles. Pripps has a maple syrup farm near Park Falls, Wisconsin. In harvesting the maple sap, he relies on a Ford Jubilee and a Massey Ferguson 85. 
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